Method and system for bi-level congestion control for multipath transport

• US 20080144504A1
• Filed: 12/14/2006
• Published: 06/19/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sun Microsystems Incorporated (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Johnson, Darrin P., Marcondes, Cesar A. C., Persson, Anders D.
• Granted Patent: US 7,701,856 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/235
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/125 by balancing the load, e.g. traffic engineering

Abstract

A method for managing a network connection includes establishing the network connection between an application and a packet destination, wherein the network connection comprises a plurality of paths, receiving a plurality of packets from the application on the network connection, wherein the plurality of packets is associated with the network connection, and wherein the plurality of packets comprises data from the application, obtaining a distribution of the plurality of packets among the plurality of paths by a master transport protocol module, wherein each of the plurality of paths is associated with one of a plurality of transport protocol modules, and transmitting, based on the distribution, the plurality of packets over the plurality of paths using the plurality of transport protocol modules, wherein each of the plurality of transport protocol modules implements one of a plurality of congestion control algorithms, wherein the plurality of packets are received at the packet destination.

Claims

1. A method for managing a network connection, comprising:

establishing the network connection between an application and a packet destination, wherein the network connection comprises a plurality of paths;

receiving a plurality of packets from the application on the network connection, wherein the plurality of packets is associated with the network connection, and wherein the plurality of packets comprises data from the application;

obtaining a distribution of the plurality of packets among the plurality of paths by a master transport protocol module, wherein each of the plurality of paths is associated with one of a plurality of transport protocol modules; and

transmitting, based on the distribution, the plurality of packets over the plurality of paths using the plurality of transport protocol modules,

wherein each of the plurality of transport protocol modules implements one of a plurality of congestion control algorithms,

wherein the plurality of packets are received and reassembled at the packet destination.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a packet loss associated with the plurality of packets; and

analyzing the network connection based on the packet loss.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

redistributing the plurality of packets among the plurality of paths based on the analysis.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

selecting a new congestion control algorithm for one of the plurality of paths associated with the packet loss; and

implementing the new congestion control algorithm on one of the plurality of transport protocol modules associated with the one of the plurality of paths.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

detecting a shared path between at least two of the plurality of paths using the analysis; and

merging the at least two of the plurality of paths.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of transport protocol modules is regulated by the master transport protocol module.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the master transport protocol module is selected as a congestion control algorithm for the network connection.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of transport protocol modules is selected based on a characteristic of one of the plurality of paths.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of transport protocol modules is one selected from a group consisting of transmission control protocol (TCP) Tahoe, TCP Reno, TCP Vegas, TCP NewReno, TCP Hybla, TCP Westwood, TCP Selective Acknowledgement Options (SACK), Hamilton TCP (HTCP), HighSpeed TCP (HSTCP), Binary Increase Congestion (BIC) TCP, Cubic BIC (CUBIC) TCP, Fast Active Queue Management Scalable TCP (FAST), Scalable TCP (STCP), Smart Acknowledgement (ACK) Dropper (SAD), and User Datagram Protocol (UDP).

10. A system, comprising:

an application configured to transmit a plurality of packets, wherein the plurality of packets comprises data from the application;

a plurality of transport protocol modules, wherein each of the plurality of transport protocol modules implements one of a plurality of congestion control algorithms; and

a master transport protocol module configured to manage a network connection, wherein the network connection comprises a plurality of paths,

wherein the system is configured to;

establish a network connection between the application and a packet destination, wherein the network connection comprises the plurality of paths;

receive the plurality of packets from the application on the network connection, wherein the plurality of packets is associated with the network connection;

obtaining a distribution of the plurality of packets among the plurality of paths by the master transport protocol module, wherein each of the plurality of paths is associated with one of the plurality of transport protocol modules; and

transmitting, based on the distribution, the plurality of packets over the plurality of paths using the plurality of transport protocol modules,

wherein the plurality of packets are received and reassembled at the packet destination.

11. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

a plurality of buffers, wherein each of the plurality of buffers is associated with one of the plurality of paths.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein each of the plurality of transport protocol modules is one selected from a group consisting of transmission control protocol (TCP) Tahoe, TCP Reno, TCP Vegas, TCP NewReno, TCP Hybla, TCP Westwood, TCP Selective Acknowledgement Options (SACK), Hamilton TCP (HTCP), HighSpeed TCP (HSTCP), Binary Increase Congestion (BIC) TCP, Cubic BIC (CUBIC) TCP, Fast Active Queue Management Scalable TCP (FAST), Scalable TCP (STCP), Smart Acknowledgement (ACK) Dropper (SAD), and User Datagram Protocol (UDP).

13. The system of claim 10, wherein a packet loss associated with the plurality of packets is received by the master transport protocol module, and wherein an analysis of the packet loss is performed by the master transport protocol module.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the plurality of packets is redistributed among the plurality of paths based on the analysis.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein a new congestion control algorithm from the plurality of congestion control algorithms is selected for one of the plurality of paths associated with the packet loss based on the analysis, and wherein the new congestion control algorithm is implemented on one of the plurality of transport protocol modules associated with the one of the plurality of paths.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein a shared path is detected from the analysis, and wherein at least two of the plurality of paths associated with the shared path are merged.

17. The system of claim 10, wherein the master transport protocol module is selected as a transport protocol module for the network connection.

18. The system of claim 10, wherein each of the plurality of congestion control algorithms is selected based on a characteristic of one of the plurality of paths.

19. A computer readable medium containing software instructions for executing a method for managing a network connection, the method comprising:

establishing the network connection between an application and a packet destination, wherein the network connection comprises a plurality of paths;

receiving a plurality of packets from the application on the network connection, wherein the plurality of packets is associated with the network connection, and wherein the plurality of packets comprises data from the application;

obtaining a distribution of the plurality of packets among the plurality of paths by a master transport protocol module, wherein each of the plurality of paths is associated with one of a plurality of transport protocol modules; and

transmitting, based on the distribution, the plurality of packets over the plurality of paths using the plurality of transport protocol modules,

wherein each of the plurality of transport protocol modules implements one of a plurality of congestion control algorithms,

wherein the plurality of packets are received and reassembled at the packet destination.

20. The computer readable medium of claim 19, wherein the plurality of transport protocol modules is regulated by the master transport protocol module.